Baby Boomers, a generation of locust, of fundamental problem with hypocrisy of Tea Party most represented demographic.

I wanted to write an article about this, but Jim Takersley did it for me.
Who Destroyed the Economy? The Case Against the Baby Boomers


Thing is, calls for less taxes, justified in every imaginable way, are still continue up to this day. These fuckers are dead-set on living large and sticking the rest of us with the bill. I am almost tempted to go into politics so I can personally throw this locust generation under the bus for what they have done.

Not sure they are the Tea Party demographics.
But I may be wrong.

I generally agree about the boomers. Their complete political incompetence is the cause of many of our problems. They dont take the entirety of the blame, most of the groundwork for our fiscal, health and other woes was actually laid by Nixon. Boomers' Bush just rapidly accelerated the process.

Though I see the Tea Party as mostly an awakening of boomers. Thats overly simplistic, and various forms of imperfection can be found all around to be certain.

At long last, the truth comes out. You want to kill anyone who disagrees with your ideology. You could have told us that from the beginning and we could all have avoided a lot of wasted time trying to have a rational conversation with an irrational person with dictatorial aspirations.

This by the way is the same sort of generalization that makes your side the racists. We assume that individuals can make decisions apart from whatever group they belong to. You assume that an entire group makes decisions as one.

Get rid of government retirement benefits and force people to be responsible for their own retirement and the problem is solved.

The sort of calamity you're railing against here is exactly what happens every time people who share your ideology get their way. In fact, it was people who share your ideology who started the whole idea of a "safety net," that was supposed to expire by the way, that lead to the broken social security system we have today. Congratulations. You get to see first hand what happens under your idea of effective government planning when humans are involved.

All of that aside, this article is exactly the sort of mealy mouthed whining I would expect from a member of generation X (my generation) who was raised to believe that everything should be given to him on a silver platter. This is the sort of person that "a trophy for everyone" produces. I don't blame the Baby Boomers for the economy. I blame them for failing to teach their children the value of hard work and dedication. They didn't want their children to go without, so they afforded them every excess. Those chickens are now coming home to roost.

If you don't like your life, get off your ass and do something about it. This is one of the few places on earth where that is actually possible, and we still have multitudes of people whining that they can't do it because it's too hard. Well, life is hard. Suck it up and deal with it, or roll over and die.

"Get rid of government retirement benefits and force people to be responsible for their own retirement and the problem is solved."


Two reasons it wouldn't work well.

1) The government is not going to give up their favorite slush fund they can play with as they see fit.

2) Most folks would not have the first clue on how to invest that on their own. Though since it is nigh impossible to live on SS alone, I don't see much changing either way.

I agree I would love to see SS abolished completely. Quit taking it out of my pay, refund what has been taken so far and I'll handle it on my own. Not very likely to see it happen in our lifetimes though.

Since you can't see my facial expression over internet - I am rolling my eyes at you. Please return soap box to its place when you are finished with it.



Above is prime example of Stockholm syndrome.

Oddly I dont think SS is a bad thing if it was'nt messed with. Most people can't,don't or will not save for the future and it benifits all of us to have a safety net.

SS isn't bad thing, but when segment of population can vote to take out more than they put in, well then you have a problem.

its soooo simple: you cant pay people not to work. call it retirement, welfare, whatever. it dont work

It isn't that black and white Cheerio. Plus in another 20 years thanks to automation even with strong economy we won't need all these people working. What do you propose we do with them?

Do you stand in front of the mirror and practice not making sense?

i dont believe this will be the case. people will have to work for the foreseeable future. i hope yo arent one of those venus project people...

my point is that all transfers from productive to non productive people are destined to fail. ss and other retirements are just pyramid schemes. assuming i get my 30 years in and retire at 62, i am supposed to get 72% of my gross for the rest of my life.
if i dont get a raise for the next 18 years, my retirement will be 4k per month.
i only pay 6k a year (matched by employer) into it!
theres no way that investments can earn that much
plus, the employer contribution in the peoples republic of california is an IOU.

finally: western civ is facing population shortages. too many old, not enough working and paying in. baby boomers (the hippie generation- not tea party) have cut a swath of destruction as they moved thru this country.
they were the hippies who ruined music, encouraged drug use and rebellion for its own sake. they got educations and took over the higher education systems, corrupting them and preaching the gospel of self esteem for its own sake, they neglected their own families, causing divorce homosexuality etc to become the new normal in a single generation, now they demand we all work more and pay more so they can keep their plum retirements

filthy hippies ruined everything

Its just the fundamental immorality of those who argue that their entitlements are actually human rights, even though providing them long term is unsustainable pyramid scheme.

But it doesnt have to last forever, just until they are gone right?

No Derid, it is much simpler - it is "Taxed Enough" type of people that want it all. It is ignorant people insisting on not paying taxes, insisting on electing people to gridlock congress so they don't have to pay taxes, insisting that they can TAKE TAKE TAKE and not pay for this.

On paper SS is a good idea. You take out part of your income to put in a account, like a 401k(granted the feds put it into one pot) and let it make money on interest. Now this is not suppose to be a tax because your getting it back(if you dont die).

Now the hard part is not to use that money for other things hoping you can put more back in before anyone needs it.

Like I said on paper(my paper using simple math) it looks good till the feds run it.

One major problem with this , is that those taxes being raised also apply to a bunch of people who did notwant/were not adults or even alive when these poor decisions were made.

Raising my taxes to pay into the Boomers' pyramid scheme is what I find so distasteful, especially when even with said increased taxes the systems being paid into still will eventually collapse... because its still a pyramid scheme. Paying more taxes into it simply is saying "well, maybe now there's a small chance I might possibly eventually see a return...maybe... but the folks after me are certainly still fucked."

I am 100% with you, but not raising taxes still means that boomers going to go out living large, and still means that we will have to pay for it. Longer taxes are not raised, longer boomers are not adequately paying into the system.

My personal "ideal" solution is to a) raise taxes b) cut benefits. BOTH. TODAY.

Note I said - CUT, not eliminate.

"assuming i get my 30 years in and retire at 62, i am supposed to get 72% of my gross for the rest of my life. "


Sadly, they factor in the death variable. They are banking on the fact that most will keel over long before they have exhausted their total benefits due to them. This is why the payment is structured, instead of a lump sum payout :D

In fact, didja know, if you die and are receiving SS benefits, the government will recall the last SS check sent to you even if it was already deposited and / or spent ?

Gotta love that one :|

I have zero plans on working till I'm 62. I would like some time outside of the daily office grind to do things assuming my health allows for it. Have known too many folks who died within a year of retirement for me to stick around longer than necessary.

the vast majority do live on. and on. life expectancy at 62 is 19 years. it goes up if you are a college graduate. are white. are middle class. and so on.